Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will tonight hope to claim his first trophy as Manchester United manager when his side battle Villarreal in the Europa League Final.
After a painful run of four successive semi-final defeats, including against eventual winners Sevilla in this competition last season, the Premier League runners-up finally ended that particular hoodoo despite a second-leg defeat in an 8-5 aggregate goal-fest against AS Roma and will now look to finish the job in the northern Polish city of Gdansk this evening.
But standing in United’s way is a Villarreal side managed by three-time Europa League winner Unai Emery - an expert in this competition who brushed former club Arsenal aside to ensure that there were not two major all-English finals in Europe this year.
Date, kick-off time and venue
The Europa League Final between Villarreal and Manchester United kicks off at 8pm BST on Wednesday, May 26, 2021.
The Stadion Miejski in Gdansk will be restricted to 25 per cent of its usual capacity due to Covid-19 rules, with United receiving 2,000 tickets for a game that will feature a crowd of 9,500 people.
Villarreal vs Man Utd team news
Man Utd XI: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw; McTominay, Pogba; Greenwood, Bruno Fernandes, Rashford; Cavani
Subs: Henderson, Grant, Telles, Maguire, Tuanzebe, Williams, Matic, Fred, Amad, James, Mata, Van de Beek
Villarreal XI: Rulli, Foyth, Albiol, Pau Torres, Pedraza, Parejo, Capoue, Trigueros, Moreno, Bacca, PinoSubs: Sergio Asenjo,Mario, Funes Mori, Raba, Estupinan, Alcacer, Moreno, Coquelin,Pena, Jaume, Moi Gomez, Nino
Manchester United’s 26-man Europa League Final squad
Goalkeepers: David De Gea, Dean Henderson, Lee Grant, Nathan Bishop
Defenders: Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Alex Telles, Axel Tuanzebe, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Brandon Williams
Midfielders: Amad, Bruno Fernandes, Fred, Daniel James, Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beek
Forwards: Edinson Cavani, Anthony Elanga, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, Shola Shoretire
Where to watch Villarreal vs Man Utd
TV channel: Wednesday’s final will be shown live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate, with coverage beginning at 6:30pm.
Live stream: BT Sport subscribers will be able to watch the match online via the website or BT Sport app.
Villarreal vs Man Utd prediction
United did not end the domestic season in great shape, with poor results against Fulham, Liverpool and Leicester preceding that final day win at Wolves. However, Solskjaer was juggling a remarkably congested fixture list after ownership protests forced the Liverpool game to be postponed and had to make sweeping changes accordingly.
Villarreal did not follow suit on the final day of the LaLiga season on Saturday, given that they were away against a Real Madrid side still battling for the title.
Before that came comfortable wins against Sevilla and Valladolid, though they also shipped four goals against Celta Vigo and ended up finishing seventh with a place in next season’s inaugural Europa Conference League - unless they can bypass that and get into the Champions League by winning on Wednesday.
United are certainly not fazed at all away from Old Trafford, having gone a full Premier League season unbeaten away from home - the last team to achieve that admirable feat was Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ side.
Emery is a master of the Europa League, having also reached the final with Arsenal, but we’re backing Solskjaer to claim his first piece of major managerial silverware in Gdansk in a tight, nervy contest.
2-1 United win.
Head to head (h2h) history and results
- Villarreal wins: 0
- Man United wins: 0
- Draws: 4
All four previous meetings between these two teams have ended in goalless draws. Hopefully that’s not an omen for this final...
Betting odds and tips
- Villarreal win: 4/1
- Man United win: 10/11
- Draw: 13/5
- United to win 2-1: 9/1
